Installment #1 of my books

On my bottom shelf, wedged between my binders of collegiate papers and a scattering of personal sports memorabilia, is my Holy Bible. Is it watching over my pleasurable past? No, it’s just participating with the others, like another piece of memorabilia.

As you can probably gather (from a recent post), that I’m not really into Western religion. I tend to lean more on Eastern philosophy like Buddhism and Taoism. Seems kinda weird from a guy who teaches at a Catholic school, eh? Sometimes I am a living, breathing contradiction.

This Bible is a little more personal than that.

When I was about 12-years old, I was sitting in church on Sunday morning. I don’t really think I listened to anything the preacher said. Strangely, when the preacher said something about wanting be “saved”, I mindlessly walked to the front with a few others. I felt no emotion; I just did it. After the service, an aunt, who I rarely spoke to, came up to me and gave me a hug that was full of love. (I honestly didn’t know anyone I knew was looking.) She acted as if I had just won some prestigious award. I just bashfully smiled.

When I got home, my mother was just beaming with love and pride. (Her narcissism and inconsistent behavior always kept me hyper aware of her. Anyway, that was when I was gifted this Bible.

When I unzip this book and look inside, many memories creep into my head. Like, my parents seemed a little more caring about this time. I remember trying to read this book and getting bored and confused. (This doesn’t include my confusion of all the white people in the pictures in the biblical scenes, supposedly in the Middle East.) I tried several times to read this, through different approaches. Nothing seemed to work.

I also wondered why a kid’s Bible is full of very thin paper that could easily rip. It’s amazing that this book has lasted since 1971, without a single tear. It’s probably due to the sealing of the zipper and fact that I never read it. I just threw it in an unknown drawer for many years.

I open the Bible a few years ago, after many years of not opening it. When I opened it, I opened it to a page where I used a football card as a bookmark. It was 1977 card of a defensive end named Ezra Johnson of the Green Bay Packers. (Kinda biblical name, eh?!) I don’t know the deep symbolism of this fact. But I did find him on Facebook and sent him a message. I never received a return response. I guess I was expecting something miraculous or something.

By the way, this Bible made the cut. That was a better fate that the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Bible that former University of Georgia football coach Mark Richt personally gave to me. That one is currently on sale on PangoBooks.com. (Look for Dr. Bo’s Library.)